CNN has apologized -- but this is still appalling. If Bristol Palin was Chelsea Clinton or Malia Obama, we’d be having a different national conversation right now....

◼ O'Reilly Slams CNN Host for Jokes About Alleged Assault on Bristol Palin - FOX

◼ Why Did CNN Think Bristol Palin Recounting Being Called a ‘F***ing C***’ Was Funny? - Daily Signal

If Bristol Palin was Chelsea Clinton or Malia Obama, we’d be having a different national conversation right now....

Last month, news broke about a brawl involving the Palin family in Alaska. Several of the Palins were involved in a drunken fight that erupted at a house they stopped at after after Todd Palin’s birthday party.

This week, TMZ obtained and released audio from police of a distraught and upset Bristol Palin, talking about the incidents that preceded the brawl. She says, “Some guy gets up, pushes me down on the grass, drags me across the grass, [and says] ‘You slut, you f—ing c—, you f—ing this.”

On CNN, female anchor Carol Costello breezily introduced the segment this way: “Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it. This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across – well, come across in a long time anyway.” Then, Costello advised the audience before playing the audio of Bristol, “Sit back and enjoy.”

Because it’s so funny when a young woman is pushed down and dragged and called sexually derogatory terms to boot....

◼ CNN's Carol Costello apologizes for Palin remarks - Dylan Byers/Politico

...After the tape, Costello said “the long bleep was my favorite part....”

Costello’s reaction immediately received backlash from conservatives on social media and websites like The Daily Caller and Right Scoop.

On Thursday’s “Morning Joe,” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski said they were guilty of jumping to conclusions over the incident, initially approaching news of the brawl with a “humorous tone.”

“The more we learned about what happened its clearer that it’s not that funny,” Brzezinski said. “We played into stereotypes from maybe our own outlook, quite frankly. So it’s definitely more of a story than that.”

Scarborough said everyone is guilty for presuming the Palins are to be used as a “punch line.”

“There is the very real possibility that something terrible happened to them,” Scarborough said. “… I think we all shot first and asked questions later and a lot of people are guilty of that.”

In a blog post on Wednesday, Bristol Palin said the "hypocrisy of the media is laid bare" by their treatment of that night.

◼ "Violence against women is never okay… Even if that violence occurs against conservative women." - Althouse

◼ Compare These Two Videos - Bristol Palin/Patheos